Long earlier than phrases like “French Girl Chic” turned algorithmically entrenched in on-line purchasing guides and temper boards, the late French movie starlet Brigitte Bardot created the blueprint for what was as soon as a contemporary and thrilling type of dressing. Her tousled blonde bouffant, bikinis and capri pants signaled a extra informal, laissez-faire angle to dressing — eschewing formal, buttoned up silhouettes for an effortlessly ‘thrown together’ look that turned synonymous with the swinging sixties and sexual liberation.
The style world quickly wrapped its arms round Bardot’s type —fueled by the booming post-war film business, which made her a world star — and shortly turned her singular look into an oversaturated development that we proceed to see referenced and replicated many many years later.
The French Girl look has been coveted by ladies all around the world. Catlike eye-liner, off-the-shoulder necklines (sometimes called the “Bardot neckline”), babydoll attire and messy beehives have been seen on the likes of Sienna Miller, Alexa Chung, Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss all through their very own profitable careers.
Bardot’s overarching legacy might not be as simple to outline as her private type. While she was a celebrated cultural icon who has left an indelible mark on style historical past, she was additionally maybe an early prototype for the Trump-era pin-up.
Her politics leaned closely in the direction of the suitable. In 1992, she married Bernard d’Ormale, a former advisor to Jean-Marie Le Pen — founder of France’s far-right National Front celebration. She was convicted 5 occasions for inciting racial hatred, oftentimes directed on the Muslim neighborhood, and was publicly dismissive of the #MeToo motion and feminism, preferring to focus her philanthropic efforts on the rights of animals over ladies.
Despite her conservative values, Bardot was seen as a titillating expertise and was usually solid in scandalous roles, equivalent to her breakout movie “And God Created Woman” (1956) the place she performed a sexually uninhibited teenaged orphan. Her off-screen style selections, too, the low-slung necklines, unkempt hair and naked legs, cemented her as France’s “sex kitten” — a time period coined particularly for Bardot.
Instead of being at odds together with her politics, her sensuality was seen as a break from the prudent conservative aesthetic, much like the hyper-feminine, presumably right-wing-coded magnificence beliefs exemplified by celebrities equivalent to Sydney Sweeney at this time.
Bardot was actually not a trad spouse — she was married 4 occasions although most well-liked the hedonism of Cannes to healthful homemaking — however she is perhaps who at this time’s trad wives wish to emulate whereas on their honeymoons in Europe.
Scroll on to take a deep dive into Bardot’s enduring, covetable type.
